What is going on with Ghostbusters 3? Will it ever happen? And if so when? Pick a Ghostbuster, get a completely different answer. Last month Bill Murraydismissed the sequel as “just a myth,” and that “all this talk is just talk.” Over the past couple days Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd weighed in, and one thing is clear — no one is on the same page.

I propose a new policy for 2010: let’s not be even vaguely ready to buy into every little Ghostbusters 3 statement that passes the lips of Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. Especially Dan Aykroyd. But the thing does seem to be happening, for better or worse, and while we’re lodged in the last days of 2009 I’ll stick with this year’s policy of delivering every shred of haphazard promise about the upcoming film. The latest is from Harold Ramis, who promises a summer 2010 shoot for a 2011 release. Read More »

For months and months we’ve been reading snippets from interviews with the original Ghostbusters cast and crew talking about Ghostbusters 3, which is in development. But our friends at MakingOf have director Harold Ramis (who played Egon in the original films) talking about the possibility of making a third film for almost seven minutes. He talks about how the effects might be transformed in this new computer generated world, making it look low-tech, the unproduced draft of Ghostbusters in Hell script, and how the project is developing, and the danger of making sequels. Watch the interview after the jump.

In the wickedly underrated David Wain comedy Wet Hot American Summer, there is a sequence where Michael Showalter, in character as a stand-up comic geezer, entertains a bunch of kids at camp with awful jokes about the Stone Age. The joke isn’t his routine, but that the kids are laughing at these terrible, stale caveman gags. Thinking along those lines, I’d be happier (though unconvinced) if Harold Ramis argued that his new movie Year One was a full-length meta comedy about terrible jokes, though I know it’s just a bad, ramshackle movie that assumes its audience is comprised primarily of children. Read More »

Interest in Ghostbusting is at fever pitch, and the imminent launch of the original Ghostbusters film on Blu-Ray and the tie-in videogames must have something to do with it. All the same, genuine interest in the franchise is as high as any time in the last 20 years, at least, and stories revolving around the upcoming third installment are piling up thick and fast. After the break, a few bullet points that should bring you up to speed and, most excitingly, a look at what appears to be the first dialogue exchange from the next movie to become public knowledge. I’ll also toss in a fantastic rumour I’ve been hearing, but haven’t been able (yet) to substantiate. What fun would leaving it out be, though?

The Hero Complex caught up with Dan Aykroyd, who provided a couple updates on Ghostbusters 3. Aykroyd says that Ivan Reitman is “too busy as a mega-producer” to helm the film, and that his second choice would be Ghostbusters co-star and Groundhog Day/Analyize This director Harold Ramis.

Yesterday we reported that the producer Judd Apatow and director/co-writer Harold Ramis had lost their appeal hearing for the biblical comedy Year One, which had been slapped with an R-Rating by the MPAA. I doubted at the time that Columbia Pictures would release the $75+ million comedy with an R-Rating, especially considering the fairly weak online buzz the film has garnered since the debut of the movie’s superbowl commercial.

The filmmakers re-cut the film, resubmitted to the MPAA, and the new cut was given a PG-13 rating “for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.” I’m sure the R-Rated cut, or an expanded unrated cut, will eventually end up on DVD/Blu-ray.

I have no inside information about the screenings, but many times with the MPAA, it all comes down to a specific shot/line, or even a few frames of film (as it did with Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri). So I doubt the R-Rated cut and the PG-13 cut are THAT much different. It’s likely the difference of a few seconds of film.

The Judd Apatow-produced biblical comedy Year One has been slapped with an R-Rating by the MPAA Classification and Rating Appeals Board for “some sexual content and language.”According to THR , Apatow and director/co-writer Harold Ramis appeared before the appeals board to argue for a PG-13 rating, but were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts. At this point, Sony is forced to accept the rating, but still has the option of re-editing the film for resubmission.

The movie has an estimated budget of $75 million (those big sets and location shoots don’t come cheap) The online buzz for the film has been fairly weak (the superbowl television spot ranked one of the lowest in polls), and an R-Rating could be detrimental to the film’s box office prospects.

Groundhog Day is one of those films that just gets better every time I watch it, but I can honestly say that I’ve never imagined the time-skipping antics of Phil Connors as a musical. Apparently, acclaimed Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd) fancied the idea a few years ago, but nothing came of that. Now the MTV Movies blog is reporting that the musical is actually closer to reality than we think.

In a conversation with the film’s co-writer/director Harold Ramis, he mentioned that Danny Rubin, co-writer of Groundhog Day, is working on a book for a musical. On Sondheim’s potential involvement, he says the following:

Stephen Sondheim was asked what film he would turn into a musical and he said ‘Groundhog Day… And I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’ James Lapine, who directed a lot of Sondheim, actually contacted me and asked if I’d thought about a ‘Groundhog Day’ musical.

MTV was able to get Harold Ramis to talk about the next Ghostbusters movie, which is currently in the development/scripting stage with The Office/Year One scribes Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky working on the script. Ramis has yet to receive a first draft in hand but claims that he has been consulting with the screenwriting duo, along with Dan Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman (who helmed the original film).

The biggest bit of news is that Ramis confirmed that all of the original Ghostbusters will return for the third film if it does happen, and that includes Bill Murray (Dr. Peter Venkman).